This is a
large family of mainly tropical and sub-tropical herbs - many of them are
interesting horticultural subjects. It is very well represented in Malesia,
although most are not cultivated due to rarity or cultural difficulty. The
family produces many horticulturally desirable subjects but none are
agriculturally of economic importance.

Henckelia
was previously placed in Didymocarpus, a East Asian genus now consisting
of mainly deciduous types in seasonal locations.

This is an
unidentified Henckelia from S. Malaysian state of Johore. It is very
exacting in its demand, being found only on islands of large granite
boulders scattered around the dense understory of the primary forest. It has rather stiff
glabrous lance shaped leaves with undulating edge. The uniformly pale
purple flower does not have any pollen guide for pollinating
insects.

The
rare Henckelia longipes is found only at Gunung Ledang, a small isolated
mountain at the border of Johore and Malacca in Peninsula Malaysia. It
has a long peduncle and small pale yellow tubular flower. The photo
shows the natural habit of the plant, a stemless rosette growing amongst
mossy boulders under dense shade. It is interesting to note that many
mountains in Peninsula Malaysia exhibit a fairly high degree of endemism
in their highland gesneriads taxa, with the physical isolation acting as
barrier for their distribution. This renders the plants very vulnerable
to even slight habitat disturbances

The
widespread Henckelia platypus flowering in June. The flower actually has
a pale purple tinge not visible in the photo. This plant is very similar
in habit as H. crinita below. It is also the most common Henckelia in
the lowland and the only one still found in Singapore.

This
is the widespread Henckelia crinita, which is a medium sized herb with a
hard stem bearing a rosette of hairy dark leaves with jagged margins.
Many of the flowers I found do not open fully which is very puzzling. The
photo is taken at Penang Hill.

Aeschynanthus,
or lip stick plant, is a genus of ornamental epiphytes or lithophyes
from East Asia, comprising of about 200 species according to Mary Mendum.
A few species, like A. parvifolius at the top photo, have been
cultivated or hybridised as house plants in the West for a very long
time. It is good on a hanging basket under bright humid conditions. The
species below is an A. albidus, which has less showy green flower
and green leaves with pink underside.